Villains, Not Just for Evil Anymore!

[Anastasia Rabiyah]

According to film critic, Roger Ebert, "Each film is only as good as its villain.” That holds true in literature as well. What makes a hero a hero? Sure, he has those innate characteristics that get good things done. He may save the heroine, the world, the day, but he’s not much of anything other than an ordinary guy unless he’s up against a dastardly villain. So what makes a good villain, the kind we love to hate and almost feel sad for when he loses?
There are many kinds of villains: anti-villains, archenemies, dark lords, evil twins, femme fatales, mad scientists, super villains, tragic villains, tricksters, lackeys, henchmen, minions, and secondary villains. They all have their place in literature and in the plot to take down or disparage the fantabulous hero. The kind of villain that stands out to me is the one who is very human. My favorite villains aren’t evil just for evil’s sake. They don’t want to take over the world or the city for a power trip. They’ve been driven to be who and what they are by circumstances in life, usually some rather nasty ones.

In fact, my favorite villain is the tragic villain. He does what he thinks is good, when in fact, it’s totally evil. He has serious motivation to make the decisions he takes on. He is not pure evil, but a rather muddled mixture of selfishness and insecurity. My favorite villain just wants to be loved and accepted like anyone else, but never will be, at least not in the conventional sense. He’s way too scary to receive anything other than fear and awed loyalty from his minions of doom. He might be good-looking, but women are put off by his wicked ways, unless they’re out for his money or power.

Redeeming a villain is a difficult task. In my writing, I have several types of villains, but I often fall for the one who has traits which are socially redeeming, however small and deeply buried from the general public. In Nimmet, Goddess of Love, the book begins in the villain’s point of view. He touches a statue he has recently acquired, a love goddess statue, and professes his belief that there is no such thing as love. It’s sad and poignant. What person doesn’t want love? How could a grown man reach such a state of emptiness? Leuj Irnia, the villain in Nimmet, is a man in need of new truths in his life. He needs a chance at redemption just as much as the hero in the story needs a chance at saving the city and the heroine.

I think it’s the parent in me that wants to redeem my villains. Face it. When your child flushes a whole roll of toilet paper down the pipes and you have to call in the plumber to snake the drain, you don’t want your child to do that again. You want him to learn from his mistake and not make that same mistake twice. You want him to do the right thing. I want my villains to learn as well. It’s possible I have too much respect for the evil characters, but because a good story is only as good as its villain, I want my villains to stand out and be remembered.

A villain who stands out to me most is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I loved him, pitied him, and wanted him to win. That’s so wrong and yet, so right. Anakin Skywalker started off good and became the tragic villain; duped into thinking he was doing the right thing. So tell me readers, what is your favorite villain, the one that stands out in your mind? Why do you love to hate him or her so much?

Anastasia Rabiyah

[Kathy Crouch]

Michael Douglas in Perfect Strangers (movie) is awesome as the perfection of evil.

[Elaine Cantrell]

I loved Spike! (See Kelley's comment above.) Memorable villians like Darth Vadar stand out, but I think the true villians are ordinary people who commit their nastiness secretly. Like a person who's abusing children, for instance. Many of them get away with it too.

Elaine Cantrell
www.elainecantrell.com

[Kathy Crouch]

I like to portray the villan as bad but in the western I'm writing the uncle is involved but he is later redeemed he was suckeered into it.

[Kelley]

One villain that comes to mind is Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After learning about how he was kind of geeky and mistreated before he was made a vampire, I kind of felt sorry for him. And later he redeems himself making him likeable and I thought that was great character building.
My villains tend to be ones who think they are doing the right thing. I like to blur the lines a bit. In White Rose of Avalon, Morgaine is seen as the villain, but she thinks she is doing the right thing.
Anyway, great post.